Find Academic Supervisors

Stephen Billings is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, where he holds the Global Real Estate Capital Markets Chair position. He serves as the faculty director of the MS in Real Estate program and research director for the CU Real Estate Center. His work spans multiple research centers including the Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision Making and the Michael A. Klump Center for Real Estate. Billings received his PhD in Economics from the University of Colorado, a MS in urban planning from the University of North Carolina, and a BS in economics from Georgetown University. Prior to joining CU Boulder in 2016, he was faculty at the University of North Carolina Charlotte with appointments in both economics and public policy, where he also served as faculty director for the real estate center. His research focuses on the intersection of housing, schools, neighborhoods and crime, addressing critical policy issues including the impact of public investment in light-rail transit on neighborhoods, school segregation's influence on academic achievement and crime, neighborhood gentrification causes, lead-based paint in low-income housing, and the effects of sea level rise and natural disasters on neighborhood sorting and household finances. Billings employs sophisticated analysis of large micro-datasets with studies based on data and policies in Charlotte, NC and Denver, CO. His work connects urban economics with public policy, demonstrating how neighborhood environments shape individual outcomes across multiple dimensions. Billings' recent publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on neighborhood effects, school choice impacts, crime economics, and housing market dynamics. His work frequently examines the intersection of race, housing, and economic outcomes, with particular attention to policy implications. He has developed innovative methodological approaches to studying residential amenities and neighborhood spillovers, with increasing attention to climate change impacts on housing markets. His research appears in top journals including The Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review: Insights, and Journal of Urban Economics. As an educator, Billings teaches undergraduate and masters classes in real estate finance and economics, as well as doctoral and masters level courses on cost-benefit analysis and statistical methods. He has extensive consulting experience conducting economic impact studies, including assessments of North Carolina's public higher education system, affordable housing needs in Colorado communities, and the economic effects of marijuana legalization on property markets. His practical policy work complements his academic research, creating a bridge between theoretical insights and real-world applications. Billings leads significant research initiatives through the CU Real Estate Center, where he directs studies examining the impact of business improvement districts and other urban development policies. His work bridges academic research with practical policy applications, making substantial contributions to our understanding of how housing, education, and neighborhood environments shape individual outcomes and community development. His December 2023 memo on the HUD Officer Next Door Program exemplifies his engagement with current housing policy issues.

• Housing Economics
• Urban Economics
• Neighborhood Effects
• +4 more

Dr. Julie Rugg is Reader in Social Policy at the University of York's School for Business and Society. She specializes in policy evaluation with expertise in private rented sector dynamics, housing assistance systems, and qualitative analysis of housing behaviors. Her current ESRC-funded project examines criminality in the private rented sector through co-produced solutions. Rugg directs research on rental sub-markets, tenant-landlord relationships, and enforcement effectiveness. Her work has influenced national policy discussions on housing welfare reforms and rental market regulation. She also leads the Cemetery Research Group, investigating historical and contemporary burial practices. Recent projects include nationwide analyses of property supply to lower-end rental markets and investigations into criminal landlord practices. Rugg's methodological approach combines policy analysis with qualitative investigations of housing experiences.

• Private Rented Sector
• Housing Policy
• Criminality in Housing
• +4 more

Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he has been a faculty member since 2005. He serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and co-director of its Corporate Finance Program. Bachelor’s Degree, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1999) PhD in Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2005) His research focuses on finance , macroeconomics , and corporate finance . Key areas include household debt dynamics , credit market structure , income inequality , and interest rate impacts on productivity growth . Recent work examines customer capital investment and low-interest rate effects on market concentration . Selected scientific awards include the 2017 Fischer Black Prize, Econometric Society Fellow (2022), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow (2024). His peer-reviewed publications and working papers span topics from syndicated loans to global household debt cycles , with notable contributions to understanding credit-driven business cycles and government-led consumer credit programs . He teaches courses in leveraged finance , private credit , and corporate restructuring .

• Finance
• Macroeconomics
• Corporate Finance
• +9 more

Jesper Rangvid is a Professor of Finance and Director of the Pension Research Centre (PeRCent) at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), where he also serves as Associate Dean of the Executive MBA program . His research focuses on financial markets, macroeconomics, financial crises, household finance, and mutual funds. He has authored influential works such as How Low Interest Rates Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2025) and From Main Street to Wall Street (Oxford University Press, 2021), exploring topics like interest rate trends, economic growth, and policy impacts. He chairs the Council for Return Expectations and holds board positions at Formuepleje, Advantage Investment Partners, and Finansiel Stabilitet, among others. His advisory roles include Levring & Levring and projects for Danish institutions like Forenet Kredit and BankInvest. Recent research highlights include analyzing Denmark’s pension system reforms, fiscal-monetary policy interactions, and the implications of low interest rates on global economies. Rangvid’s publications combine rigorous academic analysis with policy relevance, addressing topics like dividend predictability, economic growth’s impact on asset returns, and the behavior of professional investors. His work often bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical data, offering insights into macro-financial linkages and policy design.

• Financial markets and the macroeconomy
• International finance
• Financial crises
• +2 more

Danny Yagan is a Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Economics, with expertise in public economics, taxation, and income inequality. He contributes to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. His research focuses on fiscal policy, including deficit sustainability and the "growth dividend" concept. He has extensively studied pass-through business entities' impact on labor income share and inequality, using administrative tax data to analyze wealth distribution and taxation of top earners. Recent work examines spatial inequality trends, place-based redistribution, and the role of colleges in intergenerational mobility. Collaborations with scholars like Raj Chetty, Emmanuel Saez, and Owen Zidar highlight his interdisciplinary approach. Yagan's publications span topics including tax reform, capital taxation, and household investment behavior. He is actively involved in policy analysis and empirical economic research.

• Public Economics
• Tax Policy
• Income Inequality
• +5 more

Assoc Prof Haoming Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at National University of Singapore. His research focuses on applied economics, econometrics, and labor economics, with a particular emphasis on labor and demographic economics, health, education, and welfare, as well as economic development and technological change. His work often examines the intersections between environmental factors (e.g., heat, pollution) and economic outcomes, such as labor productivity, crime rates, and educational attainment. He has also contributed to studies on minimum wage policies, housing markets, and fertility-education trade-offs in developing economies. Education: PhD in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Research highlights include analyzing the impact of heat on economic activity in tropical cities like Singapore, the effects of air pollution on labor productivity in China, and the role of discount rates in long-term housing market decisions. His teaching interests span labor economics, income distribution, and applied econometrics. Key contributions include demonstrating how heat influences workplace attendance and student performance in air-conditioned versus non-air-conditioned environments, and how minimum wage increases reduce urban crime disparities between low- and high-income communities. His articles frequently employ innovative econometric methods to address policy-relevant questions, such as optimal contest design, microgrid energy trading mechanisms, and urban density pricing in housing markets.

• Applied Economics
• Econometrics
• Labour Economics
• +6 more

Eric Bettinger is the Conley DeAngelis Family Professor in the Stanford University School of Education and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He also holds appointments as a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and Professor (by courtesy) of Economics. Bettinger directs the Center for Educational Policy Analysis and the Lemann Center for Brazilian Education at Stanford, and serves as a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2000) and a B.A. in Economics, Magna cum Laude with Honors, from Brigham Young University (1996). Bettinger's research focuses on the economics of education, with particular emphasis on student success and completion in college, the impacts of online education, financial aid effects, teacher characteristics, and voucher programs. His work employs rigorous statistical methods to identify cause-and-effect relationships in higher education. Notably, his research on simplifying financial aid applications has directly influenced White House efforts to streamline financial aid processes, demonstrating the real-world policy impact of his scholarship. His recent publications reveal consistent focus on educational interventions, technology in education, and policy evaluation. Bettinger's work spans multiple methodologies including randomized controlled trials, natural experiments, and large-scale data analysis. His research often addresses practical educational challenges while maintaining strong theoretical foundations in economics. Bettinger has served as a consultant to the White House and various state governments on financial aid policies, translating academic research into actionable policy recommendations. His work bridges the gap between academic scholarship and practical educational policy implementation. As an academic leader, Bettinger directs multiple research centers and has advised numerous doctoral students. His current advisees include Joseph Moore, Sergio Arango, Michelle Blair, Dallas Gilmore, Gabriel Koraicho, and postdoctoral researcher Saloni Gupta.

• Economics of Education
• Higher Education
• Student Success and Completion
• +5 more

Dr. Yan Song is a Professor and Director of the Program on Chinese Cities (PCC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Department of City and Regional Planning. She specializes in land use and environmental planning, focusing on low-carbon urban development, spatial analysis of urban form, and China’s urbanization policies. Her work integrates GIS and computer-aided tools to assess urban growth and sustainability challenges. Her research examines domestic and international issues including urbanization drivers, green city development tools, land and housing market dynamics, and urban-transportation integration. Dr. Song leads the PCC, which investigates China’s urbanization impacts on environments and seeks equitable, sustainable growth strategies. Her projects are funded by NSF, EPA, HUD, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Research highlights include studies on rural-urban spatial restructuring, policy spillover effects, and energy transition mechanisms. She has consulted for Shenzhen’s city government and Beijing’s urban planning institutions. Dr. Song’s interdisciplinary approach bridges planning, environmental science, and policy, addressing global challenges like climate resilience and digital finance’s role in green development. Her advising focuses on PhD students interested in Chinese urban issues, and she holds affiliate roles at the National Center for Smart Growth and Lincoln Institute. Recent work emphasizes the 5R urban retrofitting framework, equity in heat mitigation, and the interplay between technology adoption and environmental governance.

• Urban Planning
• Land Use Planning
• Environmental Planning
• +3 more

Kurt Mitman is a Lecturer at the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) at Stockholm University. He holds a Professor position at CEMFI and is an Associate Professor at IIES (on leave). His research spans macroeconomics , with a focus on household economics , housing , labor market dynamics , and monetary/fiscal policy . He served as Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies (2019-2024) and received an ERC Consolidator Grant for his project HIPSTERMacro . Key research areas: Macroeconomics, Household Debt and Default, Housing Market Shocks Major contributions: Studying unemployment insurance effects, debt-relief policies, and heterogeneous-agent models His work has been widely covered in media outlets including The Wall Street Journal , Bloomberg , and The Economist . He co-organizes the VMACS seminar series and academic conferences like the SITE Session on Macroeconomics and Inequality .

• Macroeconomics
• Household Economics
• Housing Economics
• +5 more

Thomas Lemieux is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics within the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia , where he has been affiliated since 1999. Previously, he taught at MIT and the Université de Montréal. Born in Quebec City, he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Research Interests: His work focuses on labor economics and econometric methods , particularly analyzing earnings inequality , unionization effects , regression discontinuity designs , and educational returns . He employs advanced decomposition techniques to study wage dynamics across gender, immigration status, and sectoral divides. Scientific Awards: Fellow, Royal Society of Canada Fellow, Society of Labor Economists Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Publications: He has published extensively in top journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics , Econometrica , and Journal of Labor Economics , with recent work examining: Union wage premiums using matched employer-employee data Spillover effects of minimum wage policies Changes in task prices and occupational wages Top income dynamics in Canada Immigrant wage gaps across education sources Regression discontinuity identification challenges Canadian labor market responses to the Great Recession

• Labor Economics
• Econometrics
• Income Inequality
• +4 more

Scott Nelson is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research bridges consumer credit markets, regulatory frameworks, and behavioral economics, with a focus on how information asymmetries and algorithmic decision-making shape market outcomes. He has contributed to understanding the impacts of the 2009 CARD Act, eviction protections in housing markets, and fairness in credit scoring systems. PhD in Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology BA (summa cum laude) in Economics and Mathematics, Yale College Nelson's work employs diverse data sources, including credit reports, court filings, and tax records, combined with structural models to analyze consumer and firm behavior. Key themes include regulatory efficiency, validity disparities in predictive models, and the welfare implications of policy interventions. His articles reveal trends in algorithmic regulation (2025), eviction dynamics (2025), credit scoring disparities (2024), and public finance impacts on Chinese real estate (2023). These publications highlight interdisciplinary methodologies integrating economics, law, and data science. Scientific awards include the AQR Top Finance Graduate Award (2018) and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He has held postdoctoral roles at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau/Princeton University and visiting research positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

• Consumer Credit Markets
• Financial Regulation
• Information Asymmetry
• +7 more

Axel West Pedersen is a Professor at the Department of Social Sciences within the Faculty of Social Sciences , Oslo Metropolitan University. He holds a joint position between OsloMet and the Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) Institute . His work focuses on pension systems, welfare state research, income distribution, and aging-related policy challenges. Core Research Areas: Pension system development, welfare opinion analysis, income inequality, poverty studies, and ecological adaptation of welfare states. Active Projects: Sustainable Wellbeing Through Investment in Social Services (SWINS), Crisis Management and Governance in Nordic Local Democracies (POLYGOV), and Flexible Retirement Pathways analysis. Past Projects: WEST Project analyzing eco-social state transitions, Pension System Legitimacy (PensionLAB), and Children's Living Conditions research. Pedersen's recent publications examine psychosocial work environments for elderly workers, universal basic income debates, and housing allowance equity. He contributes to policy discussions about welfare state sustainability, particularly regarding aging populations and climate change challenges. Contact: axel.pedersen@oslomet.no

• Pension Systems
• Welfare State Research
• Income Distribution
• +5 more

Frances Woolley is a full-time Professor in the Department of Economics at Carleton University , with a cross-appointment to the School of Public Policy and Administration . Her research focuses on public finance , labour economics , and feminist economics , with expertise in family economics , gender inequality , and tax policy . Her work bridges theoretical economic models with real-world policy analysis, particularly in intra-household resource distribution and taxation fairness. Recent publications highlight her engagement with emerging issues such as cryptoasset taxation , long-term care financing , and cross-border carbon pricing . Her research consistently emphasizes gender dimensions in economic outcomes and policy impacts. Woolley has received notable awards including the Purvis Prize and Vanderkamp Award , and delivered the Canadian Economics Association Presidential Address in 2018. She actively contributes to public discourse through popular writing and media engagements, addressing topics like labor market dynamics, tax equity, and social policy.

• Public Finance
• Labour Economics
• Gender Economics
• +4 more

Ewa Batyra is an Affiliate Researcher at the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being within the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR). Her work focuses on global demographic patterns related to fertility, family formation, and socioeconomic disparities. Key Research Areas: Fertility dynamics, child marriage, union formation, and the impact of education on demographic transitions. Geographic Focus: Global South, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Recent Trends: Batyra's publications analyze post-disaster fertility shifts, unintended pregnancy outcomes, and the role of income inequality in delaying parenthood. She employs cross-national datasets and advanced statistical methods like fixed-effects modeling. Collaborations: Works with institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania (Hans-Peter Kohler), University of Oxford (Tiziana Leone), and Brazilian research teams on fertility forecasting.

• Fertility Demographics
• Family Formation Processes
• Socioeconomic Disparities in Demography
• +3 more

Yushu Zhu is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. Her research focuses on housing stratification , urbanization , and social equity , with a particular emphasis on immigrant communities , low-income populations , and ethnic minorities . She teaches courses on housing policy, urban transformation, and research methods. PhD in Architecture from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign M.Sc. and B.Sc. (Hons) in Geography from Sun Yat-sen University, China Former roles at Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, UBC, and Brown University Research Interests include urban sociology , community housing , and public policy . Recent work analyzes housing inequality in Canada (1981–2016), state-embedded gentrification in China, and neighborhood participation dynamics. Her publications appear in top journals like Urban Studies and Environment and Behavior . Scientific Awards include multiple SSHRC grants (Partnership, Insight, Partnership Engage) and a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy fellowship. She has contributed to policy reports and participated in expert panels on urban housing, pandemic impacts, and social integration.

• Human Geography
• Urban Studies
• Housing
• +6 more